By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Hopes of a bi-partisan measure to protect younger immigrants, known as “dreamers,” from being deported may have been dashed after President Trump’s administration released a list of hard-line crackdown on immigration.
In exchange for protecting hundreds of thousands of younger undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the administration said it wants funding for a border wall, a crackdown on Central American children and punishment for “sanctuary cities,” the Washington Post reports.
Democratic leaders quickly rejected the Trump’s wish list.
“The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement Sunday evening. “We told the President at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures … but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise.”
The Post reported:
About 690,000 immigrants are enrolled in DACA, but their work permits are set to begin expiring in March. Trump had met last month with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and agreed to try to strike a deal, worrying immigration hawks who feared that Trump would support a bill that would allow dreamers to gain full legal status without asking for significant border security measures in return.
The list released by the administration, however, would represent a major tightening of immigration laws. Cuts to legal immigration also are included. And, while Democrats have called for a path to citizenship for all dreamers, a group estimated at more than 1.5 million, a White House aide said Sunday night the administration is “not interested in granting a path to citizenship” in a deal to preserve the DACA program.
